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THE PRODUCERS

BEHIND THE MUSIC

MARK RONSON

Super-producer, DJ, pop star and all-round tastemaker, Mark Ronson has sprinkled fairy dust over some of the biggest hits of the 21st century. He created one of the all-timegreat party songs with Uptown Funk, and helped catapult Amy Winehouse and Adele to superstardom; but he’s just as adept at coaxing great new material out of veterans such as Duran Duran and Paul McCartney. Now Ronson has teamed up with equally prolific whippersnapper Thomas Wes ‘Diplo’ Pentz for his latest project, Silk City. It’s a celebration of dance music both old and new, paying homage to the cities that inspired so many DJ classics over the decades.

The name Silk City conjures up images of house music from a very specific time in history...

“What we make is ‘night music’. You think of cities and you think of Detroit, Chicago, London, New York, Paris, Manchester and then the Silk part, of course, makes you think of Steve ‘Silk’ Hurley, for sure. There’s this really iconic diner in Philadelphia called Silk City – at night, they would have parties and DJs. It’s where a lot of the Philly neo-soul movement started, people like King Britt. I also met Wes there. 15 years later, when we were working on our first music, we were going back and forth with all these names. I went: ‘What was the name of that diner where we met?’ He replied: ‘Silk City’. I was like: ‘Why are we still talking about what our name should be? That’s the best name ever’.”

About Classic Pop

Issue 44 of Classic Pop magazine is on sale now!
In the latest issue we speak to Soft Cell's Marc Almond and Dave Ball as they prepare for their farewell gig at the O2 in London and release a career-spanning boxset, Keychains & Snowstorms. We also take a look at their Non-Stop Erotic Cabaret LP in our Classic Album feature.
Elsewhere, we have an exclusive interview with the world's biggest record producer, Mark Ronson, catch up with The Proclaimers who return with their politicised new album Angry Cyclist and talk to Level 42's Mark King about his life in pop's funkiest band.
This month, we look back on the glory days of house music and Toyah tells us how she brought the punk aesthetic to the pop world.
For boombox fans, we take an in-depth look at why cassettes are making a return and we also serve up a buyer's guide to the wonderful Luther Vandross.
Our packed reviews section features new albums from Prince, Paul Weller, Lenny Kravitz, Paul Simon and many more while the reissues section includes Pet Shop Boys, the latest David Bowie boxset and Curiosity Killed The Cat.
On the gig front, we head to Hyde Park for The Cure's only European show of the year, delve into the latest Let's Rock festival in Shrewsbury and check out gigs by Nick Heyward, Del Amitri and others.
Enjoy the issue!